


Cafe Dumas

by lessiehanamoray



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akiren Week, Gen, Post-Game(s), excerpt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 10:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18444914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lessiehanamoray/pseuds/lessiehanamoray
Summary: A glimpse at Akira Kurusu's future as he works a cafe owned by one of Sojiro's old friends.  A chapter from my 2018 National Novel Writing Month project, and the beginning of a mystery.





	Cafe Dumas

**Author's Note:**

> This is chapter 2 from my 2018 NaNoWriMo novel. I'm working on the rewrite now, but it's already pretty different and I like this chapter for talking about AkiRen's future.
> 
> In the previous chapter, Akira found himself in a strange city, empty yet filled with the sound of festivities. There, he not only changed to Joker, but found a familiar red crow mask. It's bothering him, but a dream is a dream, and life keeps trudging on.

Akira had learned many things from Morgana, among them that yawns could totally be disgruntled.

Unfortunately, his employer at Cafe Dumas, an old friend of Sojiro’s named Hoshi Tsunashi, also knew that.

He poured out the last drop of coffee from his french press and shoved the overly soaked coffee into Akira’s hands.  “Get yourself awake before the morning rush.”

Akira glanced at the black water.  Then back to his manager. With a shrug, he brought the mug to his lips, swallowing the lukewarm mud coffee in as few gulps as possible. 

Mr. Tsunashi liked to experiment with his morning coffee, which meant the bottom grinds were almost always overly bitter and disgusting.  They were also stronger than an energy drink with a caffeine shot mixed in. 

At least, he liked that explanation more than the idea that he had just been grossed into alertness.

“You with me now?”

Akira thudded the mug onto the counter.

Yeah, he felt awake now, but all he could think about was the city from his dream.  Where was it? Why was Akechi’s phantom thief mask there? Who had been the stranger in the tattered clothes?  

Besides the most likely culprit to have caused the hole in his head.  

Poor Akira had woken with a splitting headache, like someone was trying to squeeze his brain out through his nose.  

A shower and a simple breakfast had helped, but he still wished he could have gone back to sleep.  That dream definitely hadn’t counted as restful.

But no, he had to be at the cafe in time for the first students to come trundling in after their morning classes.  Mr. Tsunashi could handle the pre-class morning rush. Everyone was in and out then, but once those classes got out, students started showing up to combo up on caffeine, homework, and often sugar, as efficiently as possible.  

The fact they made breakfast sandwiches helped too, but most students were there for hot sugar water with a dash of coffee.  

And as efficiently as Mr. Tsunashi could whip up a drink, he was horrible at table service.  It turned out that more personable than Sojiro didn’t count for much. 

That was probably why he was so incessant Akira maintain a pleasant demeanor.  

How he expected that to happen while simultaneously shoving him in a butler costume, Akira would never know.  

“Akira Kurusu!”

Akira just about jumped, but managed to simply turn it into a quick turn to face his manager.

“It’s not like you to space out.”

Only because he knew how important keeping this job was.  Not only did he need the income, but Sojiro would kill him if he screwed up after getting recommended.  Compliments did not come easy to that man. 

“What’s wrong?”

Oh yeah, and because he legitimately liked Mr. Tsunashi.  He forgot that sometimes. 

“Headache.”

“You gonna be okay to work?”

Akira nodded.  “Yeah, the medicine’s just taking a bit to kick in is all.”

“Listen, I’d rather have you miss work than risk making customers angry.”

“I’ll feel better once I start working,” Akira assured him. 

“You good for class this afternoon?”

Akira nodded, amused by how much Mr. Tsunashi worried over his grades.  He appreciated it from a sane scheduling perspective, but didn’t exactly need help.  So far all of his classes were pretty easy. Cake walk compared to high school. 

Even before becoming a phantom thief, his general inability to ignore someone in need had always left him busy.  If someone needed help, he helped, and that had left him in a perpetual time crunch. 

Everyone in his hometown had been too scared to ask for help when he came back from Tokyo.  That was why he’d decided he need to go to college somewhere people didn’t really know him. 

Tokyo could have been an option, and he missed his friends, but Akira had decided to take the chance to try out something new.  After all, no matter how hard it had been at time, the memories he had made in Tokyo were many of his fondest. If he could do that with the cloud of a criminal record hanging over him, he figured he could do even better without one.  

Besides, he wanted to make new friends.  To try out another lifestyle before committing fully to anything.  This seemed like a good time for such things. 

The small bell hung over the door dinged and a group of five girls entered.  Akira recognized one of them, Hana Saito, from a study group at the beginning of the semester.  

“Welcome in,” he greeted, adding a little bow to the formalities.  Now that he thought about it, he didn’t see Hana often. The other four girls were regulars, though they rarely stayed, but this was the first time he remembered seeing Hana in since he had started work.  

She glanced at him while the other girls picked out a table.  He didn’t miss how quickly she darted her attention away from him and toward nothing in particular.  

Morgana, who had a cat bed under the counter, sauntered over to them.  He was always so quick to greet the female guests. 

“Good morning, ladies,” the not-cat greeted with a jovial not-mew.  

“Hey there, Morgana,” one of the regulars greeted.  

Hana looked at the tuxedo colored not-cat.  Akira saw her lips move slightly, and Morgana stand even straighter, so he figured she had complimented the not-feline.  

Akira grabbed a handful of small menus and approached them.  You went to the counter if you wanted something to go, and the menu was written on a blackboard, but the paper menus included more of the food options for customers who intended to linger.  

“Good morning, ladies.”  He set the menus down. “We have fresh croissants this morning and are serving croque monsieur along with our normal pastries and sandwiches.”  He made a point to smile at Hana. She looked entirely too nervous for the calming atmosphere of the cafe. 

Mr. Tsunashi liked to garden, and with winter fast approaching, the cafe had turned into a veritable greenhouse.  It was warm and lush, with a host of popular houseplants keeping the air clean and fresh. 

“Is there anything I can get you ladies to start with?”

“Four lattes and…” the girl who had ordered, the same who had greeted Morgana by name, looked over to Hana, “do you want a latte or something else?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry about it, Hana,” piped up one of the other girls.  “Our treat since we drug you here.”

“We have a delicious matcha latte as well if coffee isn’t your preference, as well as a fine hot chocolate,” Akira offered.  

There were other choices, of course, but this covered the hot drinks nicely and stayed in the same price range as what her friends were ordering.  

Hana finally looked at him.  “What would you order?”

It really depended, but she clearly just needed an answer.  “They’re all delicious, but,” given her apparent mood and the chill air outside, “I’d go ahead and order what you’re friends are having.  You can order the lattes with or without sugar, and I have to say the boss has the ratios mastered.”

Hana looked to her friend.  

“Alright then, five lattes it is.  We’ll order some pastries or something when you come back with the drinks.”

Akira nodded before moving back to the counter to give Mr. Tsunashi the order.  Morgana stayed with the girls, even hopping onto the vocal girl’s lap when she patted it.  

Oh yeah, he had mentioned she really liked cats and knew how to give a great ear scratch.

“Morgana is living it up as usual, huh?”

Akira nodded then, noting that Mr. Tsunashi had already turned around to work on the lattes, verbally responded, “Yeah.”

“You live up a little too, you hear.”

Been there, done that, Akira thought, but chose to keep his mouth shut.  Even though no one talked about the phantom thieves anymore, he knew to stay selective in what he mentioned about his year in Tokyo.  

Another ding as more customers walked in, this set walking straight to the counter.  Akira moved behind the cash register. 

He spent the next several minutes taking orders while the boss worked on the drinks.  Only a couple more people sat down at tables, so he was able to quickly hand them menus without too much of a fuss.  

They knew they could always come up to the counter if they needed to, though he tried to avoid that situation.  Times like these, Akira felt they could use another waiter taking orders and helping with the drinks. He hated not being able to really talk with the customers.  

Mr. Tsunashi put five lattes on a tray.  “Why don’t you get these out?”

Akira nodded, recognizing concern in his boss’s face.  The other girls were trying to get Hana to talk, but the best anyone could do was Morgana drawing an absent minded pet or two from the girl.  

Mr. Tsunashi’s job was to provide the best drinks and food to go alongside those drinks, and in that he excelled.  Indeed, he had wasted no time explaining to Akira that while he did need help during the rush, the thing he really wanted out of his first employee was someone to make sure the customers were happy.  To make Cafe Dumas somewhere safe and relaxing for its clients. 

Akira gently set the drinks on the table.  

“She looks exhausted,” Morgana whispered from under the table.  

Akira placed a latte in front of Hana.  She just stared at the wooden table.

“Miss Saito?” he queried.  He made sure to look to her friends as well for any sort of visual cue.  He knew it wasn’t his place, but she looked pretty distressed. He had first assumed she was nervous about him, but the way she just stared down at the table worried him.

She turned her head just barely enough to look at him.  

He got the distinct impression of “go for it” from her friends.  Clearly, they weren’t having any luck pulling her out of her funk.  

“Is there anything I can help with?”

She looked back at the table.  

He looked at her friends.  They shrugged. 

“Anything else I can get you ladies?”

“I’ll try a croque monsieur,” one of them piped up.  Two others agreed.

“Just a cranberry scone for me,” the ringleader added.  She looked at her friend. “What about you, Hana?”

The girl shrugged.  

“One for her too.”

Akira nodded and went back to the counter.  He needed to deliver the other guests’ drinks and get the food prepped.  

Despite her friends’ best efforts and two hours in the cafe, Hana never perked up, and they were forced to attend their next classes with a clearly depressed friend.  Akira remembered her as fairly cheerful, but the day didn’t leave much time for pondering. They stayed busy all the way up until it was time for Akira to leave. 

Morgana came with him to the back room where he changed.  The not-cat had something in his mouth.

He put it down on the table where Akira kept his bag.  

“I found this sticking out of the Saito girl’s bag.”

“You shouldn’t steal from our clients,” Akira chided.  

“Like I’d steal some random piece of paper,” Morgana huffed.  “It looked interesting.”

Akira moved over to look at it.  A bunch of sketches, most partially scribbled out, covered the page.  Some scribbled writing in katakana conveyed the direction of the page, and he rotated it to match.  

“Ka-ru-ko-sa,” Akira muttered.  He looked at another attempt. “Kaa-ko-sa.”  It looked like someone figuring out how to write an English word in katakana.  Glancing at the page, the only other things which really stood out was a bunch of partially scribbled out sketches.  Almost all of them had what looked like an upside down question mark.

It kind of reminded Akira of some of the symbols on Futaba’s persona.  Random squiggles which seemed both childish and significant all at once.  

“Do you know what karukosa is?”

Akira shook his head.  He had never heard of it.  

“I think it has to do with what’s troubling her,” his friend continued.  

Maybe?  He remembered Hana had been looking to study the brain itself, and that she was nice enough, but quite logical in class.  He didn’t know her particularly well, but she didn’t seem like the sort to take flight of fancy.

Then again, he didn’t seem the sort to run a criminal organization stealing hearts either. 

**Author's Note:**

> For those wondering, a lot of my stories come out of the same basic ever-morphing AU. In this WriMo I tackled some of the concepts I first explored in Mistletoe, and Akira's employer is the same one seen in both Mistletoe and Love Password, which both takes places in similar yet slightly different continuity.
> 
> Anyway. I hope this was enjoyable as a fun stand-alone glimpse at Akira's future.


End file.
